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World Europe Italy Veneto The Lake Garda Riviera Learn

The Lake Garda Riviera

Learn about The Lake Garda Riviera

A concise introduction to The Lake Garda Riviera, its geography, history and culture.

Introduction

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Lake Garda's eastern shore is in the Veneto, and it is a different place from the lake's Lombard and Trentino sides. Fifty kilometres of it run from Peschiera del Garda in the south to Malcesine at the Trentino border, all in the province of Verona.

Italians call it the Riviera degli Olivi, the olive riviera, and the name is literal: the lake's thermal mass holds a Mediterranean microclimate at a latitude that has no business supporting olives, lemons and cypresses. It does anyway.

The southern end is low, broad and busy -- walled harbour towns, wine, and Italy's largest theme park. The northern end narrows sharply, with Monte Baldo rising over 2,000 metres straight out of the water and the best sailing wind in Europe blowing down it every afternoon.

Geography

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The Veneto holds Lake Garda's eastern shore, fifty kilometres from Peschiera in the south to Malcesine at the Trentino border -- low morainic hills at one end, Monte Baldo rising over 2,000 metres out of the water at the other.

Read the full Geography guide →

History

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A Roman frontier lake, then a chain of Scaliger castles, then Venetian -- reached in 1439 by hauling a fleet of galleys over the mountains -- and finally an Austrian fortress zone whose Peschiera stronghold is now a UNESCO site.

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Culture

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Olive oil, Bardolino wine, lake fish and a castle in nearly every town -- with a German-speaking holiday culture layered over it that is now two generations deep.

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How It Was Built

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Walled harbour towns and Scaliger castles on the water, olive terraces on the slopes behind, a Venetian-Austrian fortress at the southern end, and post-war hotels filling everything between.

Read the full How It Was Built guide →

Climate Patterns

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The lake's thermal mass creates a sub-Mediterranean microclimate -- olives, lemons and cypresses at an alpine latitude -- with mild winters, warm summers and a famously reliable daily wind cycle.

Read the full Climate Patterns guide →

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